1.  Points the Beginning Must Emphasize

Because the total effect of a playlet is complete oneness, there lie in the “big” scene and in the ending certain results of which the beginning must be the beginning or immediate cause.  Such causes are what you must show clearly.

(a) The Causes before the Curtain Rose.  If the causes lie far back in events that occurred before the curtain rose, you must have those events carefully and clearly stated.  But while you convey this necessary exposition as dramatically as possible, be sure to make the involved dramatic elements subservient to clearness.

(b) The Causes that Occur after the Curtain Rises.  If the causes do not lie in the past, but occur after the curtain rises, you must show them as clearly occurring right then and there.  They must be as plain as dawn, or the rest of the playlet will be shrouded in the darkness of perplexing doubts.

(c) The Character Motive from which the Complication Rises.  If the causes lie in character, you must show the motive of the person of the playlet from whose peculiar character the complication rises like a spring from its source.  You must expose the point of character plainly.

But in striving to make your premises clear do not make the mistake of being prolix—­or you will be tedious.  Define character sharply.  Tell in quick, searching dialogue the facts that must be told and let your opening scenes on which the following events depend, come with a snap and a perfectly adequate but nevertheless, have-done-with-it feeling.

2.  Points that Must Be Brought out in the Middle

In every scene of your playlet you must prepare the minds of your audience to accept gladly what follows—­and to look forward to it eagerly.  You must not only plainly show what the causes of every action are, but you must also make the audience feel what they imply.  Thus you will create the illusion which is the chief charm of the theatre—­a feeling of superiority to the mimic characters which the gods must experience as they look down upon us.  This is the inalienable right of an audience.

(a) The Scenes that Make Suspense.  But while foreshadowing plainly, you must not forestall your effect.  One of the most important elements of playlet writing is to let your audience guess what is going to happen—­but keep them tensely interested in how it is going to happen.  This is what creates the playlet’s enthralling power—­suspense.

It is so important to secure suspense in a playlet that an experienced writer who feels that he has not created it out of the body of his material, will go back to the beginning and insert some point that will pique the curiosity of the audience, leaving it unexplained until the end.  He keeps the audience guessing, but he satisfies their curiosity finely in the finish—­this is the obligation such a suspense element carries with it.